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Sir James Ronald Leslie Macdonald
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Sir James Ronald Leslie Macdonald

British soldier, engineer, and explorer
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Quick Facts
Born:
Feb. 8, 1862, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scot.
Died:
June 27, 1927, Bournemouth, Hampshire, Eng. (aged 65)
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Sir James Ronald Leslie Macdonald (born Feb. 8, 1862, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scot.—died June 27, 1927, Bournemouth, Hampshire, Eng.) was a British soldier, engineer, and explorer who carried out a geographical exploration of British East Africa (now Kenya and Uganda) while surveying for a railroad and later mapped the previously untravelled mountains from East Africa to the Sudan.

After serving as an engineer in the British Army in India, Macdonald was appointed chief engineer (1891) for the projected Uganda railroad between Mombasa (on the Kenya coast) and Lake Victoria (in western Uganda). Made acting commissioner of the Uganda Protectorate in 1893, he resumed his duty in India (1894). In 1897 he was recalled to Africa during Lord Kitchener’s campaign to reconquer the Sudan. In that year he undertook to map the territory between Lake Victoria and Fashoda. His work was interrupted by a mutiny of Muslim troops in Uganda, but he was able to complete the mission in 1899.

Macdonald subsequently served in China, India, and Mauritius. He was knighted in 1904.

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